RIM

iPhone’s share in US nearing 1 in every 3 smartphones

Research firm comScore is out with a new survey of the United States smartphone market and the numbers paint dire picture for everyone but Apple and Samsung. More importantly, data shows that the iPhone's growth during the three month average period ending May 2012 outpaced Android, with Cupertino's market share approaching 1 in every 3 smartphone subscribers...

AT&T asked RIM to make an iPhone competitor back in 2010

There's a new report out today that claims that back in 2010, AT&T went to BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion, and asked them to create a touch-screen iPhone competitor.

This is interesting for a couple of reasons. But perhaps the most important one is the fact that back in 2010, AT&T was still Apple's exclusive iPhone partner here in the U.S...

The realities of the smartphone biz today

Different stats and market research all point to the same conclusion: that the mobile market is being reduced to a two-horse race between iOS and Android (or Apple and Samsung, specifically) as once great incumbents such as RIM and Nokia get pushed aside, their market shares seriously declining.

In fact, it's fairly safe to say that on the fifth anniversary of iPhone, both RIM and Nokia are fighting for survival, quite possibly their lifecycle coming to an end. Meanwhile, only four companies are turning profit in the increasingly crowded smartphone space...

Is there any hope left for Nokia? (probably not)

It's not a typo: I really meant Nokia, not RIM. Look, the writing's on the wall. In the first quarter of 2012, only Apple and Samsung reaped benefits of the 41 percent year-over-year growth in the smartphone biz.

Together, the two frenemies accounted for 55 percent of global smartphone shipments in Q1 and an astounding 90 percent of the profits.

Apple shipped 35 million iPhones in Q1 while Samsung recorded 43 million global shipments. None of this is surprising. What's stunning is how sharp Nokia's decline is. Of all companies, beleaguered RIM, whose Q1 shipments dipped 20 percent, may soon surpass Nokia...

iOS apps running on BlackBerry PlayBook and Windows box

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Developer who goes under a code-name "Businesscat2000" posted something really interesting-looking on the CrackBerry forum, an app player of sorts which can run native iOS apps on Research In Motion's BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

The program is demoed runnin a number of popular iOS apps and games, such as Tom Tom, Super Monkey Ball, Tiny Tower, Sushi Cat, iFart and more. It's also available for various other platforms, including Windows. Two more videos are right after the break...

RIM’s backlog hits $1 billion worth of unsold BlackBerrys and PlayBooks

Just as we thought things couldn’t get any worse for the embattled BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, more bad news hits the wires on a daily basis.

It’s been revealed today just how unimpressed customers are with RIM’s current lineup of BlackBerry smartphones and the PlayBook tablet, as these two product categories now commanded a staggering backlog of $1 billion in unsold inventory in the last quarter, up from $618 million a year earlier...

Motorola and RIM submit a Nano SIM compromise

Earlier this month, we showed you Apple's revised Nano SIM proposal the company submitted ahead of the final vote tally. The solution adds a small amount of plastic around the edges of the electrical contacts, making the upcoming tiny SIM card just long enough so that it can’t be forced lengthwise into an incompatible socket.

As you know, Research and Motion, Motorola and Nokia are pushing for their own variant. Both RIM and Motorola just submitted a Nano SIM compromise which borrows about 80 percent design solutions from Apple...

iPhone tops another customer satisfaction survey

Even though the Android platform sits on top of several major smartphone categories — marketshare, hardware specs, etc. — there's one list that it can't seem to climb: customer satisfaction. That particular stat belongs to iOS.

The iPhone has taken home more than 6 J.D. Power Satisfaction awards, and countless other smaller surveys. And it just added another notch to its belt, coming in first in the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index report...

Octopus Keyboard brings a BlackBerry 10 styled keyboard to the iPhone

I may be in the minority, but I think RIM seems to be on the right track with their recently unveiled BlackBerry 10 operating system. There's nothing in it exactly groundbreaking, but at least RIM appears to be building on a solid foundation for the future.

Whether or not BlackBerry 10 is enough to save the reeling company still remains to be seen, but at the very least it's a good attempt by the Waterloo, Ontario based smartphone maker.

As a testament to how much better BlackBerry 10 is when compared to previous BlackBerry software, a jailbreak tweak has been created that actually emulates the functionality of a BlackBerry. Has that ever been done before?

Octopus Keyboard is an upcoming jailbreak tweak that seeks to bring RIM's new gesture based predictive typing to iPhone users. The tweak is still in the early stages of development, but developer, Mario Hros, was kind enough to give me sneak peak of what he's been concocting.

Take a look inside for a full video walkthrough of Octopus Keyboard in action...

RIM: “you don’t just think different, you do different”

Risking to be called out as a fanboy, I just can't help noticing the new lows Research In Motion sank to. The staged 'Wake Up' protest?

Well, that silly campaign has now culminated with more of the same, as if this whole anti-Apple nonsense was going to do the company's declining BlackBerry biz any good.

Canada-based RIM, which recently unveiled its new BlackBerry 10 OS, set up a new website that invites business people to "wake up and be bold".

But the embattled BlackBerry maker, once a mighty smartphone brand, couldn't refrain from taking potshots at Apple, saying in the crawl on the website that "you don't just think different, you do different".

It's no surprise that indirect Apple bashing is now official strategy at RIM. What surprises me is that nobody on the executive team realized it wouldn't work.

RIM's clueless, man. They're done for, but just don't know it yet...

RIM unveils new BB10 operating system

It's pretty common knowledge that the smartphone space currently belongs to Android and iOS. The two platforms make up more than 70% of the market, which at one time belonged to the likes of Microsoft and RIM.

But neither company saw the iPhone coming, and both failed to respond quickly. Now they're fighting for the crucial "third platform" spot. Microsoft with its Windows Phone OS, and RIM with its new BB10...

RIM confirms it was behind recent ‘Wake Up’ stunt

Finally, all of the speculation can come to an end. Remember that ridiculous 'wake up' flash mob that hit an Australian Apple store a few days ago? Of course you do, we've been hearing about it nonstop.

Well as it turns out, Macworld was right. RIM was behind the whole thing. How do we know? Well, because the BlackBerry-makers just gave a statement to Macworld Australia confirming it...